Martha's Vineyard
is an island lying about 3 miles off New England on the East Coast of
the United States of America, with a permanent population of about 6000.
However, much to the disgust of a number of locals, over 40,000 visitors,
known somewhat disparagingly as the 'summer people' flood in every summer.

The eastern
part of the island is more densely populated by the permanent residents,
and is the area mostly visited by the summer visitors, who have bought
up almost the entire north-east shore. This heavily populated end of the
island is generally referred to as Down-island. The western third of the
island, where most of the original inhabitants of the island live, is
known as Up-island. It is strictly rural, with a few villages and salt
ponds, marshes, and uninhabited pine barrens. One area of Up-island is
an area known as Chilmark, which formed the centre of the island's fishing
activities, having once been a prosperous centre of the whaling industry.

Of the 2.5 per
cent of the population still involved in the fishing industry, most lived
in the Chilmark area. The Chilmark fishermen formed the most close-knit
social group on the island and the group most opposed to the incursions
of the summer people. The fishermen were viewed by other islanders as
independent, skilful, physically strong, courageous. They epitomised the
good old Yankee virtues, as opposed to the indolent consumer-oriented
society of the summer visitors.

In his study,
Labov focused on realisations of the diphthongs [aw] and [ay] (as in mouse
and mice). He interviewed a number of speakers drawn from different ages
and ethnic groups on the island, and noted that among the younger (31-45
years) speakers a movement seemed to be taking place away from the pronunciations
associated with the standard New England norms, and towards a pronunciation
associated with conservative and characteristically Vineyard speakers,
notably the Chilmark fishermen. The heaviest users of this type of pronunciation
were young men who actively sought to identify themselves as Vineyarders,
rejected the values of the mainland, and resented the encroachment of
wealthy summer visitors on the traditional island way of life. Thus, these
speakers seem to be exploiting the resources of the non-standard dialect.
The pattern emerged despite extensive exposure of speakers to the educational
system; some college educated boys from Martha's Vineyard were extremely
heavy users of the vernacular vowels.

To summarise:
On Martha's Vineyard a small group of fishermen began to exaggerate a
tendency already existing in their speech. They did this seemingly subconsciously,
in order to establish themselves as an independent social group with superior
status to the despised summer visitors. A number of other islanders regarded
this group as one which epitomised old virtues and desirable values, and
subconsciously imitated the way its members talked. For these people,
the new pronunciation was an innovation. As more and more people came
to speak in the same way, the innovation gradually became the norm for
those living on the island.